The present invention relates to the door mounting arts. It finds particular application in conjunction with tap plates which are welded into metal door frames for receiving hinge leaves and will be described with particular reference thereto.
Rather than mounting hinges directly to metal door frames, metal door frames commonly have a cutout where hinges are to be installed. A tap plate is welded to the back of the frame to either side of and spanning the cutout. The tap plate has a central, recessed portion which is recessed from a rabbet surface of the metal door frame by the thickness of a hinge-leaf. The tap plate has threaded bores to receive threaded fasteners that extend through the mounted hinge leaf.
One drawback to these tap plates is that all hinges are not the same thickness. Heavy-weight hinges are thicker than standard hinges, for example. Thus, when heavy-weight hinges were to be used, the door frames had to be special ordered with a heavy-duty hinge tap plate.
In order to adapt the same tap plate for both standard and heavy-weight hinges, others proposed manufacturing the tap plate with insert plates. The insert plates were semi-permanently adhered such that the plates would remain in place for standard hinges. For heavy-weight hinges, the plates were removed in the field. One of the drawbacks of using plates or other inserts is the costs associated with the tooling for the extra part and the labor to install it.
The present invention provides a new and improved tap plate that is convertible for use with either standard and heavy-weight hinges.